September 16,1967, after skeptical journalists had questioned whether any woman could possibly have run as fast as Maureen Wilton's recent 3:15:23 in Canada, West German middle-distance runner Anni Pede accepts coach Ernst van Aaken's invitation to run in a marathon in Waldniel. Her 3:07:27 seems to have settled the question.

September 17, 1939, Taisto Mäki of Finland becomes the first human to run 10,000 meters in less than 30 minutes with his 29:52.6. After Tokyo had been dropped as the site of the 1940 Summer Olympics in 1938, the Games had been awarded to Helsinki. World War Two would keep Mäki from his dream of representing Finland there.

"Ötzi the Iceman" had "shoelaces" of lime bark on his now 5300 year old shoes. Evidence of leather laces about 200 years older has been found elsewhere. Sports laces which refuse to stay tied are a modern invention.

Born on this date in 1885, Niels Bohr noted that marathoners near the 20 mile mark often dropped to a lower energy state emitting moans, sighs, and expletives, each subsequently labeled as a Bohr Quantum (BQ) lost in transition to the slower pace. His student Werner Heisenberg would later demonstrate how focusing on pace could lead to uncertainty about the position of the mile markers on a course.